Assignment: Media Write Up on Social Stratification and Social Class in America

Assignment: Media Write Up on Social Stratification and Social Class in America

Assignment  Media Write Up on Social Stratification and Social Class in America

 

Fundamentally, there is a consensus among sociologists that the United States as a society is stratified into different social classes depending on wealth, occupation, and education. Essentially, the idea of social classes connotes the categorization of individuals in a hierarchy, mostly based on wealth, educational level, career, income, and membership in a social network. However, the idea of social classes has been a contentious issue in America attracting varied definitions, models, and controversies about its reality. While some social scientists believe in the predominant model that consisted of the three classes namely the rich, the middle class, and the poor, currently, more intricate models are emerging to include many class levels other than the predominant three. In a nutshell, however, the social scientists concur that American society is stratified in a social class structure where people are ranked in a hierarchy. However, despite the controversial nature of the idea of social class, it has been established that social classes have important implication in human life such as effects on health, values, politics and family life among others.

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Overall, the evaluation of income trends in America indicates that US society is significantly stratified leading to an increase in income inequality in recent decades. As a result, the wealthiest individuals end up getting the most share of overall income. Primarily, social inequality is attributed to different dimensions including income, power, wealth, and career prestige. In particular, wealth is distributed unequally than income where the top richest families that constitute 20% of the families own approximately 89% of the US wealth. It is reported that by the year 2010, the average family wealth fallen to extreme levels leading to dire situations where about 40% of the lowest level families have little or no wealth. On the other hand, the dimension of power connotes the ability to exercise control even during the rebellion. Wealth is highly associated with power. On the other side, career prestige is mostly attributed to job-related status.  Schooling is related to better career opportunities and it also affects the income and profession.

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The social classes are generally ranked into the upper class, middle class, working-class, and lower class. Regarding the upper class, they are further categorized into the upper-upper class, whose membership is anchored on ascription. This class enjoys ‘old money’ that is traced to the wealth accumulated by the family over time. They mostly dedicate their time to community activities. The lower-uppers, on the other hand, are the working rich with the ‘new money’ obtained from their investments and not family wealth.

The middle class is categorized into upper middles, average middle, and lower middles. The upper middles are those that have an annual income of between $116,000 and $205,000. This category values education and occupational prestige. They are highly involved in local politics. The average middles on their side are less concerned with career prestige and mostly engage in white-collar or high-skilled blue-collar jobs. Their annual income ranges from $50,000 to $112,000. Conversely, the lower middle class are people who depend on routine jobs with less satisfaction and they are exposed to financial constraints due to unemployment or illness. The last classification involves the lower class. This class consists of about 12.5% of the Americans who are regarded as poor. About 70% of this class completes high school and nearly 15% go to college. The majority of them have homes in less desirable urban neighborhoods or rural settings. Others are working with minimum wage jobs.

Imperatively, of the greatest importance is the determination of difference the social class makes. Essentially, social stratification is a crucial determinant of an individual’s health, family life, values, politics, and attitudes. Regarding the health of a person, the high-income class is likely to report good health compared to the low-income class. Besides, the quality and sufficiency of required medical care depend on income level. On the other hand, the attitudes and values vary with the position in the social class. The politics on the other hand often trail complex patterns along class lines. The higher class tend to be conformists of economic concerns and liberal on social issues; however, they are more politically engaged. Contrarily, the lower class tend to be more liberal on economic issues and highly conservative on social issues. They are less politically engaged and generally have lower voting records. Social class also makes a difference in family and gender by shaping family life. In most cases, class ensures conformity to traditional family norms in lower-class families while in families from higher social standings, there are varying social capital and different parenting styles and expectations from children. Likewise, gender role tasks are more firm in lower-class families compared to higher-class families.

Having looked at the social different social classes and their implications on individuals, it is appropriate to consider the effects of the economy on the class structure. In the US, investments are mostly possible for people with financial capabilities. For the working class, attempts to downsize in companies have far-reaching effects on average workers. Regarding the prevalence of poverty in the US, the social stratification has established “the haves” and the “have not” and approximately 15% of the entire US population is reported to be poor. The poverty is highly widespread and the poverty line has reached almost thrice of what the government projects people spend on food. For the average poor family, the income is about 59% of the stated amount. Considering the demographics of poverty, the majority of poor people in the US are youths aged 24 years and below and the elderly at 48% and 7.8% respectively. In terms of race and ethnicity, about two-thirds of the poor are whites. Besides, nearly 27.6% of African Americans and 25.3% of Hispanics are poor. Based on gender, women constitute about 59% of poor people. This condition is increased among single mothers and women who head households. In consideration of urban and rural poverty, the central cities contain about 20% of poverty. The majority of poor people dwell in rural communities. In attempts to explain poverty, the poor themselves are blamed for their state since everyone is responsible for his or her poverty. The society is also blamed for providing little opportunity for work. However, the best way of addressing poverty is to have significant job supply and childcare for employed parents. The economy has also affected the social class by increasing the number of homeless people and the working poor.

Considering the merit and caste of stratification, it has been established that ancestry can determine social class since being born in a privileged or poor family can affect career, schooling, and income. Besides, the vast health possessed by the rich is inherited, while the inherited poverty tends to shape the future of millions of people. On the other side, race and ethnicity are associated with social position. Likewise, gender also plays a role in class structure as women are linked with poverty than men. In short, however, through social mobility, it is possible to change the current class. That is, the individuals who are willing to work hard can gain economic security and enhanced social standing over time.

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Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.

Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?

Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.

Late Policy

The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.

Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.

If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.

I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.

As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.

Communication

Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:

Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.

Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.

Important information for writing discussion questions and participation

Welcome to class

Hello class and welcome to the class and I will be your instructor for this course. This is a -week course and requires a lot of time commitment, organization, and a high level of dedication. Please use the class syllabus to guide you through all the assignments required for the course. I have also attached the classroom policies to this announcement to know your expectations for this course. Please review this document carefully and ask me any questions if you do. You could email me at any time or send me a message via the “message” icon in halo if you need to contact me. I check my email regularly, so you should get a response within 24 hours. If you have not heard from me within 24 hours and need to contact me urgently, please send a follow up text to

I strongly encourage that you do not wait until the very last minute to complete your assignments. Your assignments in weeks 4 and 5 require early planning as you would need to present a teaching plan and interview a community health provider. I advise you look at the requirements for these assignments at the beginning of the course and plan accordingly. I have posted the YouTube link that explains all the class assignments in detail. It is required that you watch this 32-minute video as the assignments from week 3 through 5 require that you follow the instructions to the letter to succeed. Failure to complete these assignments according to instructions might lead to a zero. After watching the video, please schedule a one-on-one with me to discuss your topic for your project by the second week of class. Use this link to schedule a 15-minute session. Please, call me at the time of your appointment on my number. Please note that I will NOT call you.

Please, be advised I do NOT accept any assignments by email. If you are having technical issues with uploading an assignment, contact the technical department and inform me of the issue. If you have any issues that would prevent you from getting your assignments to me by the deadline, please inform me to request a possible extension. Note that working fulltime or overtime is no excuse for late assignments. There is a 5%-point deduction for every day your assignment is late. This only applies to approved extensions. Late assignments will not be accepted.

If you think you would be needing accommodations due to any reasons, please contact the appropriate department to request accommodations.

Plagiarism is highly prohibited. Please ensure you are citing your sources correctly using APA 7th edition. All assignments including discussion posts should be formatted in APA with the appropriate spacing, font, margin, and indents. Any papers not well formatted would be returned back to you, hence, I advise you review APA formatting style. I have attached a sample paper in APA format and will also post sample discussion responses in subsequent announcements.

Your initial discussion post should be a minimum of 200 words and response posts should be a minimum of 150 words. Be advised that I grade based on quality and not necessarily the number of words you post. A minimum of TWO references should be used for your initial post. For your response post, you do not need references as personal experiences would count as response posts. If you however cite anything from the literature for your response post, it is required that you cite your reference. You should include a minimum of THREE references for papers in this course. Please note that references should be no more than 5 years old except recommended as a resource for the class. Furthermore, for each discussion board question, you need ONE initial substantive response and TWO substantive responses to either your classmates or your instructor for a total of THREE responses. There are TWO discussion questions each week, hence, you need a total minimum of SIX discussion posts for each week. I usually post a discussion question each week. You could also respond to these as it would count towards your required SIX discussion posts for the week.

I understand this is a lot of information to cover in 5 weeks, however, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Even in times like this, we are encouraged by God’s word that we have that ability in us to succeed with His strength. I pray that each and every one of you receives strength for this course and life generally as we navigate through this pandemic that is shaking our world today. Relax and enjoy the course!

Hi Class,

Please read through the following information on writing a Discussion question response and participation posts.

Contact me if you have any questions.

Important information on Writing a Discussion Question

• Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of references)
• There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional journal article.
• Include in-text citations in your response
• Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information
• Follow APA-7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor

• A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week.
• Each response needs at least ONE reference with citations—best if it is a peer reviewed journal article
• Each response needs to be at least 75 words in length (does not include your list of references)
• Responses need to be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Responses of “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the word count.
• Follow APA 7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed
• Remember to use and follow APA-7th edition for all weekly assignments, discussion questions, and participation points.
• Here are some helpful links
• Student paper example
• Citing Sources
• The Writing Center is a great resource